Who could run the world?

Beyonce.
Filthy Frank.
Snoop Dog.
Murdock Niccals.
Ryuk.
Bart Simpson.
Darth Vader.

Throw out the lawyers, buisiness folks, activists and politicians. Let scientists and engineers run things.

Keifer Sutherland.

No one. Not even a group of seven people.

There are too many differences: religion / economic / learning / value systems / even climate and geography – for this concept ever to work.

You don’t need to look further than the EU and European Community, which is falling apart before our eyes. And that’s only a couple dozen countries. You think you can get the whole world to be managed? ha Ha Ha.

But Klaatu is probably the best bet to do it himself.

Skynet.

The seven dwarfs.

Atheists.

I can’t give an anwer to this exact question, because the question presupposes an irrational response.

No seven people could run the world, whoever they are. They wouldn’t be able to know what most of the world needs. Seven people wouldn’t be able to address the needs of the world, because they could never have enough information about everyone’s needs. So much power in so few would also be prone to cronyism and corruption.

We don’t need seven people running the world—We need seven billion. Power devolved to individuals, with decision making done at the level of communities, workshops, neighbourhoods, individuals and the grassroots. Bottom-up organisation.

@Kropotkin Wow. That sounds like a Catch-22 situation if I ever heard one! 7 billion people on a planet that shouldn’t have more than 500 million. If those 7 people who will be running the place are truly smart enough, they’ll start remedying that situation post-haste!

Having one government does not mean the whole world would have one religon, and the same laws.
But, if the world WERE unified by the same one set of leaders, maybe there would be less struggle to be top dog, and more effort to belong, to be team players.
All seven would be concerned with the betterment of the planet, the world population, and not which leader gets the better deal.

Lizard men

Name them.

535 people can’t even adequately represent 300,000,000. There’s no way 7 could effectively represent 7,000,000,000.

Iron Man.
Spiderman.
Captain America.
Black Widow.
Hulk.
Vision.
Ant Man.

Stephen Hawking
Neil de Grasse Tyson
Elizabeth Warren
Oliver Sacks – if alive
Paul Krugman
Nicholas Kristof
Barbara Kingsolver

Ooh – since Oliver Sacks is dead I’ll take him back and substitute Pope Francis.

Good question. I’m not sure I know or could find the best people.
They might very likely not be celebrities or well-known, and they would very likely not be politicians. I would look for the wisest people with the most insight and benevolence towards the Earth as a whole, and to cover a wide range of perspectives.

Celebrities that come to mind:

Dalai Lama
Noam Chomsky
Jane Goodall
Stephen Hawking
Marshall Rosenberg

But of those, the Dalai Lama is the only one I think is likely to be one of the best choices available.

Also I naturally tend to know of Western people, and I would want representatives from around the world, certainly someone from Africa and someone from Europe.

With seven people, I would probably want four to be women. Certainly not more than three cis males.

I would also want a couple more environmental experts of different types, probably a climate scientist, and a ocean expert, although it would also do to have people who will seek the knowledge and guidance of the experts.

There should be at least one representative of ancient people, such as someone from the Kogi .

Wow. Now some jellies are thinking.
Good picks, @janbb and @Zaku!
I was curious how diverse some of the panels might be, whether jellies would choose only from their own homelands, or search the world over.
Interesting how well Mr. Hawking is doing. I wish we could get his opinion of whether he thinks he would want to.
I am thinking Hulk would be better applied in security.
@RedDeerGuy1, I believe Dopey and Grumpy are already in power, are you sure you want to keep them? Also, Sleepy is not likely to get much done, and Bashful could probably not handle the media pressure. You had Happy up there in Canada, and that ended badly.
Come to think of it, maybe we should talk to Snow White. The girl is indestructable.
@chyna, I’m thinking in more domestic terms for him.
@Kropotkin, you aren’t trying hard enough. Apply yourself.

the Borg

The Dalai Lama
Lady Gaga
Noam Chomsky
Jon Stewart
Malala Yousafzai
Tsai Ing-wen
Kofi Annan

The best 7 who belted out “we are the world, we are the children…”
Although Stevie may struggle to see it that way, Hall & Oates will lap that shit up, arrogant buggers.